Midori Hirose

Midori Hirose is an Oregon native multi­media artist who lives and works in Portland. Hirose’s works have been exhibited in Interior Margins at Lumber Room and at PDX Contemporary Art Gallery in Portland. Her work has also been included in Weirding and Uncanny at the Newberg Gallery in Glasgow, Scotland; and East/West GalleryHomeland in Berlin, Germany.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Hummm, Midori Hirose

In alchemy, materials transform from base metals to precious ones. Hirose’s work investigates similar phase shifts, exploring material changes, both perceived and actual. Resource and medium are drawn from science, early childhood education, and history. As Hirose investigates and alters materials, she works to identify their structural polarities and absolutes, playfully exploring the elements of forms to concretize, reveal, or catalyze their different states. The dichotomy between the built and natural world are formal dynamics that Hirose seeks to express and understand through the interactions of materials. Hirose calls her relationship to this history “material storytelling”. She sees her media as dimensional illustrations of these investigations.

For the Portland2016 Biennial, Hirose explores sounds with the participants in The Dalles in Hummm, an aural and visual exhibition. Hummm is housed in Vogt Opera House (above Morin Print Building.) In response to the historic venue, Hummm explores contemporary time-based media with the people and its surroundings.